Come What May
by Thorne Lockehart
Summary: Finn and Sam are ready to move on with the next chapter of their lives. Of course, this doesn't come without complications. Takes place in season three, AU to "For You, I'll Risk It All"


**_A/N: Well, I actually got a request to do this story in canon with season three...so I'm going to!  
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**_Disclaimer: If they're Glee-shown, they're not my own. COCO owns Orion Pillsbury.  
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**_Summary: Finn and Sam are ready to move on with the next chapter of their lives. Of course, this doesn't come without complications.  
_**

* * *

_And now I believe that this is fate  
'Cause baby, we belong together  
I know everything is gonna be okay  
Just as long as we have each other  
Through all the sunshine and the rain  
I know that it'll last forever  
Just last night, I stayed up late  
And I wrote you a love letter_

Leona Lewis — Love Letter

* * *

After two and a half months of separation, being in Finn's arms felt so, so _right. _She buried her face in his chest, pressing herself as closely as humanly possible against him and breathed in his smell. His strong arms encircled her petite form, holding her tightly.

"I missed you so much," she murmured. Sam looked up at him, searching his face for any changes. He allowed a bit of scruff to grow in (which in her opinion was so incredibly _hot_) and his skin looked a little tanner. Nothing compared to her Spanish sun-kissed skin, but he still looked good. The first non-stage kiss in two months passed and she found herself melting into it. Being Belle in Beauty and the Beast had been fun, but stage-kisses were nothing compared to Finn kisses. Kissing Jesse as Belle and the Prince was boring, mostly because it was like kissing herself. According to some critic in Spain, their chemistry was believable.

But at the moment, she didn't care about her alleged chemistry with Jesse...she cared about her chemistry with Finn, which burned strong. It wasn't long until they fell back on the hammock and she nestled close to his body. Cuddling in the backyard gave her that closeness she craved. Her entire psyche hummed with happiness at being with him.

"So, what'd you do this summer?" she inquired, propping her chin on his chest. His golden-brown eyes met her blues and he gave a small smile.

"Pretty much hung around the garage fixing up cars and playing Call of Duty. Nothing big," he responded. "How's Jesse?"

There was a note of bitterness in his voice. Sam shrugged, blinking slowly.

"I dunno. I got here a day and a half ago and I'm still kind of recovering from jet-lag. It's six hours ahead in Barcelona, you know," she replied. After the play ended, she had spent a week in Andalusia with her grandmother and her mother's side of the family. Seville was beautiful, she could see why Adrienne had been so loathe to leave when she'd gone for a visit a few years ago. "It's definitely spoiled a future on Broadway for me. Everything's so competitive there and I wouldn't ever know if I was good enough."

"I saw the play on the school's website. You're really good, Sam...maybe good enough to actually make it," he told her. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "Well, maybe not Broadway...but you could be an actress someday."

"Maybe...having my legacy immortalized on the silver screen...that'd be interesting," she commented. "What do you want to do after graduation?"

A blank look crossed his features and he was quiet for a moment. "Football...or something, I don't really know," he admitted.

"Well, we have a while to figure it out, at least. Don't worry about it..._I'm _even freaking about what to do," she assured him, rubbing from his chest to his stomach soothingly. "But we have the greatest year of our lives to look forward to...our year to finally do things right."

"You're sure excited to return to school, aren't you?" he remarked. She buried her face into his chest in embarrassment and his hand tightened its grip on her waist.

"I'm back on the Cheerios and I'm kind of hoping I have a good shot at captain. Quinn's MIA and all I have to do is beat out Santana for it and I'm golden," she responded.

"See, you have all these big plans and I don't even know what I'm gonna eat for breakfast tomorrow," he said, tucking a lock of her hair out of her face. She giggled and lowered her gaze again.

"I always plan. Stick with me and I'll take real good care of you," she told him, craning her neck up for a kiss. He obliged willingly and it wasn't long until her arms wrapped around his neck to deepen it.

Two and a half months was way too long to go without him. Sam hadn't realized until she'd gotten on the plane back to Lima just how much she was looking forward to coming back. Skype, phone calls, and text messages sustained their relationship and she had felt insecure that it wasn't enough.

Seeing those gorgeous eyes so focused on her, that crooked half-smile that always sent shivers down her spine...she felt stupid for feeling the way she did. She pulled away to sit up in the hammock, taking his fingers in hers. Her eyes moved over his face, carefully looking for just about any sort of crack. Distance was almost always the death kiss in young relationships, especially as one as fragile as theirs.

"Is something wrong?" Finn inquired. Sam shook her head, running her fingers through her thick raven hair.

"I'm waiting for that one little thing that feels wrong. In the books and the movies, the going away thing is always the end for relationships and I don't want that to happen," she confessed. Her gaze lowered to the crocheted netting of the hammock and she bit down on her lip. Veronica had nastily told her it wouldn't last over and over, saying he was probably out screwing around and that was why he was sometimes late to their Skype dates.

"Not on my end...you're way too important to me to let you go like that," he told her. A ghost of a smile flickered on her lips and he squeezed her knee until she laughed. "You're way more beautiful when you smile, you know that?"

"If you start singing One Direction, I'm walking away," she returned. Her nose wrinkled and she hugged her knees. "I'm being dumb, aren't I? It's just...my roommate wasn't exactly supportive of long-distance relationships and I just got really insecure."

"You were in a foreign country surrounded by guys just like you. I almost lost you before prom when those guys beat the crap out of you...I wouldn't risk losing you for real," he replied. She let him talk some more before leaning forward and silenced him with another kiss.

"I love you, you know that?" she commented.

"I love you, too. I missed you so much this summer..." he said.

"We're together now...finally. Here's to the best senior year ever!"

* * *

Sam felt completely confident as she strutted down the halls of McKinley. She wore her leather jacket over her Cheerios uniform, her hair was sleek and up in its high pony. If anyone was ready for their senior year, it was her. Sue put a ban on slushy facials on the Cheerios because she grew tired of paying dry cleaner bills for the uniforms.

"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes, Sam I Am?" Orion commented. Sam smiled and hooked her arm in his. He looked different from before; his hair wasn't as punk as before. She reached up and ruffled her fingers through his newly dyed brown hair. "Nice uniform. I wasn't aware you were a Cheerio again."

"Yep. You're looking at a new booster for the Cheerios," Sam replied, putting her fists on her hips in a superhero pose. She finally rolled her eyes and threw her head back. "God, I'm so fucking pathetic. I'm so desperate to finish off Jessie's high school bucket list, I've resorted to grovelling at Sue Sylvester's feet and kissing her ass."

"How does Finn feel about this?" Orion asked. Sam shrugged with a sigh.

"He's okay with it as long as I'm still me at the end of the day. He likes the fact I'm a little quirky and unconventional," she responded. "I can smile pretty and drop-kick someone in two seconds."

"What's on your high school bucket list?" he inquired. She shrugged.

"Graduate, win another National championship, be a top bitch again. I miss walking down the hall and having people part like the Red Sea," she admitted.

There. She said it. She missed being feared, she missed being adored and being untouchable. Phantom pain in her belly made her think twice of returning to her old ways. She was seventeen now, it was time to let go of the past. If now wasn't a time to grow up, then when? She would be free of that legacy when she graduated high school and did what she wanted to do.

"People sort of do...have you noticed we haven't gotten hit by a single slushy yet?" he commented. She smiled and nudged him playfully.

"Coach Sylvester put a ban on 'em for the Cheerios. She got sick of paying the dry cleaning bills for the uniforms because of the dye in it, so the Cheerios will get corn syrup on us no more," she replied. Then she saw Quinn walking down the hall and froze, her jaw going slack. "Oh. My. _God._"

Instead of Quinn's super-cute blonde bob with the side-bangs, which Sam secretly envied because it looked so damn good on her, it was now hot pink. Instead of her usual cute baby-doll dresses and girly skirts, she wore a floor-brushing black and white tie-dyed maxi skirt and a cropped, tattered black top. Sam could only watch in horror as Quinn sidled up to the mean girls of McKinley. The Smuts, or whatever.

"Holy shit, there's no way that's Quinn," she stated. When she locked gazes with one of the other girls, she found herself flinching at the rage in them. In her Cheerios uniform, she was an untouchable target for those damn drinks the jocks insisted on flinging (even the jocks were afraid of Sue Sylvester), but it also painted a huge target on her back with those girls.

While out of her uniform, she prided herself on being edgy and rocker, but their garb took it too far.

"The grunge look is so nineties," Jana remarked on the other side of them. Sam shot her friend a look of panic. Never before had she ever felt so nervous and now Jana was poking them with a proverbial stick.

"J, don't," she pleaded in a whisper. She saw the taller Latina size her up and she nudged Jana away. "Seriously."

"I'm sorry, what did you say, bitch?" the Latina snarled as she stalked over to the two girls. Sam moved in front of Jana and looked up at her. She knew about this girl's reputation. The Mack had a history in fighting and making out with guys at truck stops. Jana was a zebra to a prowling lioness with her innocence, naïvety, and lack of knowledge in a fight.

"Leave her alone," Sam told her, setting her jaw. Huh. There was that big-sister shtick everyone talked about...but she wasn't going to let Jana get in a fight; the poor girl would get demolished.

"Oh, so _you _think you're so tough?" Mack hissed. Sam puffed out her chest, shoving her face right into hers.

"Tougher than her. Back off and leave Jana alone," she spat. Murmurs of 'cat-fight' were in the air, but she didn't care. "Or is freedom of speech no longer in the Constitution?"

"You Cheerios think you run the school. Run along and sing your little show tunes," Mack said.

Sam fought the urge to stomp her foot. Just because she was in Glee Club, it didn't mean she automatically sang show-tunes.

"And you think you run the school? I think a new truck stop just opened up...there's probably some fresh meat there for you to pony," she returned. The sharp sound of Mack's fist colliding with Sam's right eye rang through the air.

Oh, _hell, _no.

Sam clenched her fist and brought it back. She hurled it forward and nailed Mack in the jaw. Down went Frazier. Her fist hurt, but it was oh-so satisfying. She felt a hand yank back her pony-tail and she looked up to see two heavyset girls standing behind her. Jana and Orion were nowhere in sight.

_Shit..._

* * *

Sam sat in the nurse's office with an ice pack over her hurt eye. She had one hell of a black eye, but she'd managed to do some damage on the girl yanking on her hair before it became a moot point. It turned out Jana and Orion had gone to get a teacher to break up the fight.

Quinn hadn't done a damn thing to stop it. So much for loyalty among cheerleaders.

Luckily, Santana had gotten involved and managed to pull the girls off Sam by going 'all Lima Heights.'

"Damn, girl, you did good," Santana praised. Sam tried to smirk, but winced when the newly healed cut on her lip opened. She knew she probably looked like hell right then, but she didn't care. "Picking a fight with Quinn's new crew?"

"The Mack went after Jana. Poor girl would have gotten plowed if I didn't step in," Sam explained. She looked up and saw her father standing in the doorway with Uncle Danny. "Hi."

"Samantha. Renée. Devine. The first day of school and you're in a fight?" Donald said as he walked into the room. He cupped her face in his hands and turned it to look at the bruises, pulling away the ice pack.

"I was defending someone and it was three against one. I was in a lose-lose situation," she replied. He lifted her hand and cursed in Irish. "It looks a lot worse than it is." She wished she could say the other girls looked a lot worse than she did, but they didn't have half the damage done. Mack would sport some extra cover-up and a split lip for a while, but that was it. It was an unfair fight and Sam's pride hurt more than anything.

"The hell it is," he growled. He glanced at Santana to see a bruise on the girl's cheekbone. "You alright, Tana?" She waved him off with a dismissive flick of her hand.

"I've had worse," she wrote it off.

"Daddy, I'm fine. All I need is some extra clothes and some makeup and I'll be fine. You didn't need to come down here," Sam complained.

"Be glad it wasn't your mother. She doesn't even know about this," Donald told her. She rolled her good eye.

"Are you kidding? It was just a stupid fight! I'm fine, Santana's fine. No one got seriously mauled...I don't see what the big deal is!" she fired back. Sue came into the nurse's office with fire blazing in her eyes.

"I want that girl expelled!" she declared, pointing her finger at Mack. "Two of my Cheerios cannot be blamed for starting this fight!"

"Hey, that short bitch started it. Her and her stupid friend made fun of my look," Mack defended, jabbing her finger at Sam.

"I didn't make fun of your stupid clothes, you psychotic bitch!" Sam snarled. "You provoked Jana, I was defending her and your stupid friends grabbed my hair!"

"And how exactly do you fit into this, Sandbags?" Sue inquired, looking down at Santana.

"My girl needed backup and I helped her. It's Lima Heights code of friendship," she replied. Sam would have smirked if her lip didn't sting so badly.

"Thanks, Santana," she murmured. This time last year, they acted like they hated each other. It was refreshing to not have to muster the strength to despise the girl she knew since she was in eighth grade. "And I'd do the same for her."

"Look, I don't want to pretend to know the girl code of friendship, but the fact is, is that these three were in a fight. I want to know what's gonna be done about it. Is my daughter suspended, expelled, or what?" Donald inquired.

"If the students' story collaborate with Miss Devine's story, she won't get suspended or expelled. If it doesn't, she'll be expelled and removed from school grounds," Figgins replied.

If this was any indication...this school year was going to suck.


End file.
